‘Lost in Thailand’ Sets Box-Office Record in China

The low-budget Chinese hit “Lost in Thailand” steamrolled its competition this week to become the highest-grossing mainland film ever and the first local production to break through the one-billion-yuan ($160.4-million) mark at the box office.

Associated Press

A movie theatre in Beijing

The 30-million-yuan comedy overtook last year’s “Painted Skin: The Resurrection” – which earned about 726 million yuan — as China’s top-earning movie in the domestic market, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

“Lost in Thailand” also sailed past James Cameron’s “Titanic 3D,” which had been 2012’s top-earning film at 935 million yuan, according to Xinhua. “Avatar,” another Cameron blockbuster, still holds the record for the top-grossing movie ever in China at roughly 1.4 billion yuan, Xinhua said.

The 30 million yuan comedy — which was released Dec. 12 and stars Xu Zheng, Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo — is about a pair of co-workers competing to find their company’s largest shareholder in Thailand to secure a contract approval.

Over the past month, “Lost in Thailand” has pushed aside several big-name and big-budget movies, including director Feng Xiaogang’s “Back to 1942,” about the Henan province famine that killed up to three million people; Lu Chuan’s “The Last Supper,” an epic drama set at the beginning of the Han Dynasty; “The Last Tycoon” starring Chow Yun-fat as a gangster in 1930s Japanese-occupied Shanghai; the adventure movie “CZ12” (also known as “Chinese Zodiac 12”), with Jackie Chan trying to rescue stolen Chinese art treasures; and director Andrew Lau’s 3-D action film “The Guillotines.”

The success of “Lost in Thailand” has sparked debate in China over the kinds of entertainment people should be watching: inconsequential lighter fare versus historical dramas. “We need popcorn, but we also need bitter pills,” the People’s Daily said recently on its Sina Weibo microblog.

But the film has received favorable reviews, and others welcomed the triumph of a slapstick comedy amid an environment of heavy dramas.